Analyzing the Electricity Consumption and Costs of Electrical-Powered Machines When There is Orepass Failure in Underground Mine

Abstract

In underground mining environment where the loss of orepasses is a dominant factor, the minemay face a challenge of improving the loading and hauling operations. Some of the options will beto rehabilitate the lost orepasses, or developing the new ones. When the rehabilitation cost is high,alternative strategies should be applied to compensate for the orepasses failure. One of the possibleoptions is to use diesel or electric Load-Haul-Dumps (LHDs). The use of diesel-powered LHDswill increase heat and gas emissions which increase environmental concerns and ventilation costs,while adoption of electric-powered vehicles needs to be analysed. Therefore, this study wasconducted at an existing underground mine in Sweden, to determine the electricity consumptionand costs of electric-powered LHDs when there is a loss of orepasses. The AutoModTM discreteevent simulation tool was used during the analysis. The results show that, electric-powered LHDshave significant cost saving when used in case of orepass loss to move materials compared todiesel-powered units. However, the source of electricity to fully adopt electric-powered units mayneed further financial justifications to evaluate the impacts to the environment.